I M M O B I L I S M | a labor of love lost and found (2010-2020)

I wrote these words a long time ago.

- sarle se3a????

Yet the most lasting legacy of this period of large-scale urban planning was in its institutionalisation of the field in Lebanon. This was done on a national level, through laws and agencies, but also maintained within the practices of “local milieus of planners” whose “education...ideology...careers...professional and economic objectives, as well as...political and social commitments” (Verdeil, 2012: 251) were shaped by the colonial experience.

“After the end of Ottoman rule, a small Maronite community had argued on behalf of a ‘Small Lebanon’ limited almost entirely to the Mountain [in order to maintain a Christian majority]...Another minority, seconded by a majority of Muslims, wished to see their land reattached to [the newly-formed Arab Kingdom of Syria]...In the end the preference of the majority of Maronite notables, led by the church, for a Greater Lebanon under French protection prevailed.” (Kassir, 2010: 334)

I wrote these words in secret, after dark, a long time ago. I hesitated when writing these words.